Hurricane Sandy and the nor’easter that passed through over the past few days blew an assortment of leaves, pine needles, branches and more to the ground. The 65 mile an hour winds took down some trees and changed our landscape from colorful fall to bare branch winter. Walking around Poison Ivy Acres and driving in […]

We’ve had two very hard frosts at Poison Ivy Acres, but a couple of plants continue to flower as if it was August. The asters may have a few feeble flowers, and the feverfew offers a blossom or two, but Lobularia Snow Princess, and Nicotiana mutabilis are in […]

There was a first, hard frost last night and although the perennials still look pretty good the annuals are blackened, wilted and sad. I’m glad that I went out and picked dahlias, zinnias and peppers last night. The summer bloomer’s party is over, and it’s time to move […]

Today was one of those wonderful fall days: warm but not humid, with all the landscape refreshed from yesterday’s rain. We savor such weather at this time of year, knowing that the mild temperatures, and the plants that continue to thrive, won’t be around much longer.

When I got back to the house today I found the flock of turkeys making themselves at home. They were bedded down in the field between the house and the lake, and they sat on lawn furniture up near the house. When I went out to water the […]

I picked the last bouquet of dahlias today. The foliage was already shriveled from a light frost on Sunday night, and it’s supposed to get even colder tonight. I picked some of the last greens from the garden for our salad, and cooked up the beets that […]

After I finished GardenLine and packed up my headphones this morning, I passed the folks who were coming in to do the real estate program on WXTK. One of their guests commented that she knew that gardeners hate the fall. I’m sure she was just making friendly […]

Every gardener should leave his or her garden for a week once in awhile. If you’ve gone on vacation during the growing season, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say that things change so much in just seven days. In a short time some plants […]